And HERE's a brand NEW Abramoff Scandal....

[MrBenchley]

"Charities are supposed to advance the public interest, which is why they aren't taxed. But Abramoff, by his own admission, used them to evade taxes, enrich himself and bribe public officials, according to a plea agreement he signed with federal prosecutors in January.
Toward Tradition, a nonprofit in Mercer Island, Wash., that promotes "traditional Judeo Christian values" and was used to help Abramoff funnel an alleged $50,000 bribe of an aide to DeLay. "

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-charities11feb11,0,5568579.story?coll=la-home-headlines

As the Good Roger Ailes says...

"I Was Power Hungry, And You Greased Me

I was in need of succor, and you Hoovered me.

I was the Bugchaser, and you buggered me.

Ah, those Judeo-Christian values, Abramoff/Lapin style..."

http://rogerailes.blogspot.com/

[Faygo Kid]

1. I understand Abramoff is an Orthodox Jew. How does he reconcile?

One of the most fascinating intellectual questions about the destruction of our nation is how these limitless characters under Bush (and him, too) can justify their lies, venality and greed when they are ostensibly religious people with certain religious ideals that they should live by. Guess it's just hypocrisy. That and greed may be the ultimate legacy of humanity. Sad.

[MADem]

2. Old Scooter is pretty observant, too

But see what happens when you keep your eye on prizes from this mortal coil???

[RazzleDazzle]

3. There are people

whose values involve such things as "getting over" on folks, seeing how much they can get away with, etc. It's literally how they think things should be, at least for "smart people" like themselves. Some believe that if people are stupid enough to get conned, they deserve to be conned, and they're just the ones who can help them out, teach them a lesson maybe, tho it's more likely the dupable will remain dupes.

Hmm, it could be said that the Straussian / NeoCon philosophy is institutionalized sociopathy.

[Faygo Kid]

4. Agreed. Totally. But that's not where Abramoff is coming from.

He holds himself out as an Orthodox Jew. And certain moral precepts come with that. As they do in all religions. And what you speak of is certainly not Orthodox Jew mentality. Never understood Dr. Laura either. Actually, don't understand why both of them are not criticized by Orthodox Jew leaders, because they are abominable.

[MrBenchley]

5. If you click through, you find this bit of venality...

"Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the head of Toward Tradition, said he had no reason to be suspicious of a gift from an Abramoff client called eLottery, even though his organization is avowedly anti-gambling."

[Ian David]

6. Greed and hypocrisy permeate all religious faiths, it seems

Somewhere there must be fabulously wealthy Budhists, but if there are, I haven't heard of any.

The Poop, for example, lives a life of almost unimaginable luxury. As do many of his favorite priests, Bishops, and cardinals.

And that from a faith in which the priesthood is supposed to take a vow of "poverty."

Anti-gay Baptist Rev. Lonnie Latham has his Mercedes confiscated when he was arrested for soliciting gay sex from an undercover cop.

There is a whole lot of money to be made in the god-business.

[roseBudd]

7. This type of religous wingnut believes the $$$ are dserved because of

their so-called faith. Apparently the problem the evangelicals have with Catholicism is that Catholics believe in good works.

"To be saved, Catholic doctrine requires the continual performance of good works.

"Even though incorporated into the Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved."

These works include baptism, various sacraments, plus many additional works.

Once again the teachings of Catholicism oppose God's Word, which states that salvation cannot be earned, but is a free and undeserved gift of God:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;" Titus 3:5


The Bible repeatedly states that salvation comes through faith-never by good works."

[bklyncowgirl]

8. Casino Jack was absent the day his class covered the ten commandments

He had the flu the day they covered that whole "Thou shalt not steal" thing at bar mitzvah class.

[Metta]

9. It's the inconsistency between holy and human.

Aided by spiritually unprofitable actions which grease the slippery slope of wrong actions until the human becomes the religion and the religion becomes the occasional garment.

[MrBenchley]

11. Pharisees....

[drm604]

10. It's not new.

This is all part of the same scandal and I was reading about the "Capital Athletic Foundation" and the "American International Center" quite a while ago. The "American International Center" was basically a phone and a fax machine in the beach front home of a couple of Scanlon's beach buddies. From here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062200921_pf.html

A third former associate, Brian Mann, was a director of the American International Center, a foundation set up by Scanlon in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Money from tribes and other clients passed through the AIC and was paid to Reed as well as to Abramoff and Greenberg Traurig.

Mann, a yoga instructor, was a director of the AIC, along with former lifeguard Brian Grosh, a longtime beach buddy of Scanlon's. The AIC described itself on its Web site as "a premiere international think tank," that was "determined to influence global paradigms in an increasingly complex world."

Grosh told the panel that Scanlon asked him to serve as a director of the AIC and paid him $2,500. "I'm embarrassed and disgusted to be part of this whole thing," he testified, saying he did not know much about the AIC's financial activities.

Randi Rhodes got a lot of mileage out of this and kept making jokes about how the only 2 directors of this "premiere international think tank" were a yoga instructor and a former life guard in a beach house.

[MrBenchley]

12. Hadn't seen this one before

There's was also an "educational Foundation" that basically consisted of Abramoff homeschooling his kids.

[radfringe]

13. then maybe

IRS should check out all the non-profit status of these charties and yank their no-tax status

with back-taxes owed, fines, penalities and interest it might make a dent in the deficit